


Innocence Died Screaming

by thriftysteps



Series: Warm-ups [5]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, Gen, Illegal Activities, Mentions of Prostitution, Orphans, Struggles to Survive, depictions of injuries, mentions of bombings, underground fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26168317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thriftysteps/pseuds/thriftysteps
Summary: Ryohei joined an illegal fighting ring to keep his sister safe, but things don't turn out the way he wanted them to.
Relationships: Sasagawa Kyouko & Sasagawa Ryouhei
Series: Warm-ups [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837456
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Innocence Died Screaming

**Author's Note:**

> The tags say the setting is WWII, but I don't know much about history to give many details. All you need to know is there is a war going on and the siblings live on the streets. 
> 
> Written with the song "The Inside Out" by Thomas Newman playing on repeat. 
> 
> This is another writing warm-up!! While writing though, I came up with a whole scenario and background and potential conflicts and scenes. So maybe if I get inspired, I'll make it into a series. But I wanna finish Because I'm Wide Awake first. :)
> 
> Mind the typos if there are any!! My warmups are written within 15-30 minutes and posted straight away without proofreading QAQ

“Nii-chan, I know you love boxing but please, you have to stop!” Kyoko begged, tears stinging and blurring her vision. They were in Ryohei’s dressing room after one of his matches. She was in the middle of patching him up. 

“Boxing” was what he called it, but they both knew what it really was that he was doing. Illegal underground fighting tournaments where the only rule was ‘try not to die.’

After their parents died to a bombing, they struggled to get by, continuously putting themselves at risk in order to get some change or food to survive another day. It was when Kyoko told her brother that she was considering prostitution to have a steady income that he decided he would join the infamous fighting league. 

The risk was high, but the rewards were higher.

When he won his first match, they used the money to buy a night at a hotel room where they could both properly shower and sleep in a bed nice and warm. 

She didn’t know at first, of course. When she brought up prostitution the first time he simply told her to wait on that because he was able to get a job lined up and they pay well and often. She had been skeptical but when they were in the hotel room she trusted him enough. 

He told her that he would get money so she could buy clothes and find a well-to-do job, too. 

It turned out that Ryohei was more than good at fighting and quickly rose in the tournament ranks. The further he got, the more he was paid per win, the stronger his opponents were, the more he got injured. 

Of course, he continuously told Kyoko that the injuries were simply work-related accidents and steered the conversation away from what it was he was actually doing. 

His secret was kept pretty hidden until one day, on a walk with his sister, a fighter Ryohei had beaten the week before ran into them and threatened to murder the boy.

They managed to escape and Ryohei passed off the words the fighter said as the nonsense of a drunkard, but Kyoko’s suspicions grew rapidly. The next night he ‘worked’, she followed him.

And since then has become somewhat of a coach to her brother. 

Right now, though, she wasn’t talking as his coach. She was talking as his little sister, who hurt when she saw her brother in his current condition.

The fight that just ended was Ryohei’s 124th consecutive win—a win just barely won, but a win nonetheless.

Several of his bones were cracked and Kyoko would argue that some bones were fully broken as well. There were gashes and cuts and bite marks all over him that she was currently tending to. His nose was broken and the bleeding hadn’t stopped. 

Ryohei himself could barely hear her and his vision was cloudy, blurry. The pain was numbed out, he barely gave any of it a thought, so used to it now that he was. 

“Kyoko, you know why I do this.” 

“But you don’t have to, Ryohei! We have enough saved! You can quit and we can find real jobs!” 

“But—“

“Nii-chan, please! I…” She pressed her lips together and willed the tears to stop. “I don’t want to have to see you like this anymore.”

“It’s not… that easy.” Kyoko watched as her brother slowly slipped out of consciousness, eyes closing, focus drifting. 

“Nii-chan! Wake up! You can’t sleep on a concussion!” She shook him, opened up his eyelids. It didn’t look like he was going to wake up. She panicked and searched the room for a bag of ice to throw on his face and abs. He twitched.

“Kyoko?”

“Chew on that ice, Nii-chan. I’m going to go get more bandages.”

With that she left the room, closing the door gently behind her, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. 

“It really isn’t that easy, you know.” 

Kyoko jolted at the voice beside her. There was a boy who looked around her age with fluffy brown hair and large golden eyes.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” 

The boy extended his hand out, “Sawada Tsunayoshi, the tenth person to gain the title of Champion for this tournament.” 

She shook his hand.

“I’m here because your brother is a very skilled fighter and I think I want to have him on my team.” He said with a grin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it!   
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> And if you wanna know what I'm up to, my writing side blog is ThriftySteps on tumblr! My main is noodleexplosion, where i am a lot more active


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